"Hoodwinked," an underfunded and somewhat undeserving sleeper hit in 2005, earns a sequel that looks, at least, as if the Weinstein Co. threw a little more money at it.
"Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil" has prettier colors and a beefed-up voice cast, and if the plot's no more original than in the first film, at least there are more gags. Sure, it's still bottom-drawer animation of the "Igor," "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Alpha & Omega" variety. And yeah, your kids can tell. But at least the fairy-tale riffs are closer to a "Shrek" sequel in frequency and quality.
"Hood vs. Evil" sees the enchanted forest dwellers of the Happily Ever After Agency muddling along while Red (Hayden Panettiere takes over for Anne Hathaway) is off learning martial arts with the Sisters of the Hood. An evil witch (voiced by Joan Cusack) has kidnapped Hansel and Gretel. Can the Big-but-not-bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton) and his squeaky squirrel pal come to the rescue? Will Granny (Glenn Close) save the day?
The case takes our heroes into The Beanstalk Club, where a mob-connected Giant (Brad Garrett) presides. There's a magic cupcake recipe that must be retrieved, Red must finish her training and join the fray. The script is a mad, muddled blitz of one-liners and movie references. Andy Dick does a Hannibal Lecter bit as an evil bunny, David Alan Grier finds a few laughs as a troll. And casting Bill Hader and Amy Poehler as the Germanic strudel-addicts Hansel & Gretel was inspired.
It's a pity the facial animation is so cut-rate and that the story is nothing more than a series of martial-arts video-game "levels" for small children.
Yes, it's in 3-D and no, it's not remotely as good as "Rio." But for children still of the "We'll watch anything so long as it's animated" age, "Hoodwinked Too" is at least a passable time-passer. (Rating: PG.)
